Connections to Doubt: What role does gossip play in TKAM? (Blog #2)

     In the movie Doubt, the priest uses an analogy to embellish on his sermon: that if you were to stand on top of a tall building, rip apart a pillow, and let every feather be carried away by the wind, you would find it a very difficult, if not impossible, task to retrieve each and every one of those feathers and bring them back to their original source. He particularly made it a point that "it cannot be done." By this analogy, the priest meant to convey the irreversible and wicked nature of gossip. Once the feathers are blown away from their original source and carried in all directions by the wind, it is almost impossible to take them back; in the same way, once the seeds of gossip are spread, they are almost impossible to get rid of -- even if the person who started it all tries to stop it. Gossip has the ability to ruin a person's reputation in a way that can't be retracted.
     This irrevocable gossip the priest talks about in Doubt also plays a huge role in defining characters and driving the plot forward in To Kill A Mockingbird. Like the priest's analogy of the person who first ripped apart the pillow and released thousands of feathers, Ms. Stephanie Crawford is the one who started most of the gossip in Maycomb, and is consistently the most avid gossipmonger of the county. So far, the main objects of her gossip have been Arthur ("Boo") Radley and his reclusive family. When he was younger, Boo had gotten in trouble with the law and his father had grounded him in the house as a punishment. He wasn't seen again for fifteen years until he supposedly attacked his father with a pair of scissors on the porch -- an event Ms. Crawford claimed to have witnessed from her property. The townspeople were convinced that Boo was crazy, but Mr. Radley refused to let him be admitted to an asylum, so again Boo was kept shut in his home. As the Radleys' neighbor, Ms. Crawford naturally spread rumors about Boo. According to her accounts, Boo Radley sometimes peeked into her windows at night. Later other rumors spread among the schoolchildren that Boo ate squirrels or cats for dinner and poisoned berries on his property so that people who tried to eat them would die. Although none of these ridiculous theories had been actually backed up by factual evidence, they were enough to degrade Boo's reputation as some kind of crazy pet-eating maniac. Moreover, the town gossip was left largely unchecked since Boo hadn't been seen out of his house in years. Thus, Boo's image was left to the townspeople's imagination as a six-foot-tall, scarred, yellow-teethed, and drooling phantom -- all based upon unfounded rumors. As a result, the schoolchildren in the community, including Jem and Scout Finch, were afraid of being near the creepy Radley house, thinking that they would be kidnapped or killed if they went by. Some kids avoid the street altogether and take a long route home rather than pass the house unaccompanied by an adult.
     However, from what the author shows readers by his actions, Boo really isn't the evil person the town gossip makes him out to be. Defying Ms. Crawford's nonsensical claims, Ms. Maudie recalls that Boo had always been polite to her when he was little. Moreover, his good nature is demonstrated when Boo tries to mend Jem's pants. Also, when Ms. Maudie's house catches on fire in the middle of the night and the entire neighborhood goes out to help, Boo does too without anyone noticing. He puts a blanket around Scout when she is shivering. From this, readers can infer that Boo is really not a monster, despite all the gossip.